


Just Another Day in the City

by erratoris



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: An AU within an AU, F/M, First works, Gen, I have been writing this ages
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-27
Updated: 2014-07-27
Packaged: 2018-02-10 16:36:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2032128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/erratoris/pseuds/erratoris
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rain was steadily falling over the never sleeping city of New York. With the sounds of tires splashing on the wet asphalt and the occasional rumble of thunder there's nothing out of the ordinary happening, just another day in the city. Well, it would be if it wasn't the fifteenth day in a row that it had rained. </p><p>In a broken version New York City, a young woman named Amelia falls through the void between worlds and ends up in a better version of New York City. But, things are not as they seem for her. </p><p>(Shitty summary I know..) (IN PROCESS OF BEING BETA'D)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In the beginning

Rain was steadily falling over the never sleeping city of New York. With the sounds of tires splashing on the wet asphalt and the occasional rumble of thunder there's nothing out of the ordinary happening, just another day in the city. Well, it would be if it wasn't the fifteenth day in a row that it had rained. In fact, some are saying that it hadn't stopped and it was the like the Biblical story of Noah's Ark, happening all over again - others were cawing about Global Warming and Green House Gasses causing it and some other people; just didn't care. They just wanted to get to work, get their money and go home again. For July, it was surprisingly cold also, but that could be down to the weather. Water makes everything colder.

There's a young woman standing in a door way, with her coat collar pulled up and her hands thrust deep in her pockets. She's hoping the rain'll let up enough for her bus actually shows up for once. Since the rain had come, some routes had become flooded and it was near impossible to get through them. She was beginning to think that she should just walk the rest of the way home. She glanced at the time on the shop front across the road from where she was, it was getting late and her mom would be wondering where she was. She was tempted to ring and ask for a lift, but it would be futile.

It had almost been raining the same amount of time since the _incident_. People tried not to speak of it around her or Bucky. It still hurt them to think about what they had lost, the whole of the community had mourned the loss with them while Enforcers had sneered in their faces about the death of a loved one. Bucky had to remind her of what happened to people who fought back against the Enforcers too many times. Some of them had come back beaten and bloody while others didn't come back at all. The Resistors were slowly loosing hope with their cause, and it was going even faster than it did before ever since the rain had come.

“Amelia!” A voice shouts from the dingy fast food place she works at, it had snapped her from the thoughts that had been welling in her mind as she looks down the street and she rolls her eyes to see her manager running down the street waving an envelope at her. “You forgot your pay.” It was cash-in-hand job there, cleaning and waiting on tables. But it was a job, and in this economy beggars can’t be choosers. She didn't want to end up like some people she had known about. It had been nice that they had taken her on. She smiled slightly at her manager as she took the envelope from him probably barely enough to pay for groceries. “See you tomorrow, bright and early.” She nodded and he left. Leaving her stood in the rain. She shuddered as a chill crept up her spine and chilled her too the bone. It was one thing to have to be constantly in the rain but to be almost consistently wet as well was another. All Amelia wanted was to get home, get dry and get in bed. That would be nice right now. 

Her bus didn’t show up. So, begrudgingly, she started to walk home, dodging some of the rain fall by ducking into doorways and covers as much as she could, but, she was still soaked by the end of the street and she had at least another 12 blocks to go. She realises that she probably should have taken a hoodie or something with her, it might have saved her from this never ending rain, but she just hunkers down further into her thin coat, willing the rain away. A couple of Enforcers smirked at her from across the road as they were hiding in a doorway, waiting to catch someone out after curfew. But, she had at least another twenty minutes before that.

As she got closer and closer to home, she was the only one left on the street, there was no one else out - probably gone inside as this area was all residential - and the rain was heavier than ever before, to the point she was actually fighting with it to get through. She put her arms up to her face to try and keep the most of it out of her eyes, but failing dismally. It kept pushing her backwards, the water stinging her eyes, the refraction of the sunlight blinding her with the colours of the rainbow; it was getting really hard for her to breathe, it got to the point that the pressure from the wind was stopping her from breathing properly. Then, it was really hot, it was as if every molecule in her body was on fire. She was screaming, but she couldn’t hear herself over the sound of the wind.

Then it all just stopped, and she landed on the street; the ground around her dry, and the sky above her sunny and blue, breathing in and out like a wounded animal sprawled out on the jungle floor. The sound of peoples murmurs and shocked gasps as she stood up completely unscathed made her uneasy. What made her even more uneasy was the black SUV and flying red and gold man in the sky... _What the fuck?_ That does not bode well. People backed away from her as the vehicle pulled up, the letters SHIELD inscribed in silver on the side. She was tetchy, and ready to bolt. She’s lived in Brooklyn her entire life; she knows how to run away. The red and gold man touched down with a metallic clang in front of her, he was made of metal as others got out of the SUV and pointed guns at her.

Anyone with half a brain could see she was terrified. 

Well, even more so when the man made of red and gold metal took his face off. She opened her mouth to scream but the sound didn’t escape. Instead, she just collapsed. “Well, I have that affect on everybody.”


	2. Just What She Needed

Amelia woke up several minutes later in the back of the SUV, she was looking directly at a man with only one eye, and he had an eye patch over it, so he might have just been faking. Her hands were ziptied in front of her so she couldn’t make any daring escapes away from the crazy world she’d found herself in. Although, she expected that she'd be dead before her feet hit the ground if she did try any type of daring escape. They stared at each other for a good few minutes, not saying anything to each other, her mostly out of still trying to form words as her throat was dry and scratchy and him just trying to get a read on who or what she was or where she was from.

“Ya know,” Amelia said quietly, trying to keep her voice on one level, “You could always read the badge.” She looked down at the badge on her chest, slightly melted and singed from the...whatever the hell happened to her, but sure enough, it still read her name. There was an errant thought about how her manager would kill her tomorrow. His eye flicked from her face to her badge. The name of the fast food chain she worked for Big Tasty’s and her name. Then right back up to her face. “So, why am I being hoiked from my street, into a big black car and... Is it me or is there a red and gold metal man flying right by the car that can take his face off?” She tried to sound confident in her words but, no she heard a slight waiver in them. “What have I done wrong?”

The man shrugged, “Nothing as such, but, you show up in the middle of a big ass tachyon surge right where you were standing, soaking wet, steaming a little bit, looking dazed on what happens to be the hottest and the nicest day of the year. We just wanted to get you out of harm’s way...” 

“And pointing a gun at me, holding me prisoner,” She holds her wrists up for him to look, “And having a metal man take his face off to get me to pass out in fright is the way to go around that? That has to be a human rights violation somewhere.” She asks, her voice raising an octave from what it had been. 

“We’re not even sure you are human! You appeared out of nowhere!” He shouts back, like this kind of thing happens every day. 

“I am hum... Wait... I did what? No... No, I think you’ve got the wrong person. I...” She trailed off, losing her voice again. He’d just said that it was the hottest day of the year, that wasn’t right; it had rained and been cold for the last 15 days. Yet, as she glanced outside, there were kids playing hopscotch in the sun lit street, and then gawping at the red and gold man next to the car. She rubbed her hands slightly at the idea’s that were popping into her head. “This isn’t possible.” They drove past the greasy spoon that she works in, the only problem was; it looked like hadn’t been open for at least 10 years. “... I work there. What’s going on? Is this some kind of joke, who put you up to this? Who are you?”

The man chuckled, and shook his head, not in the kind way either. He leaned forward, so he was right in her face; “Kid, this isn’t a joke. I’m Director Fury of SHIELD, your new lord and saviour.” She shied away from him a bit, some from the actual fear she was feeling because of the predicament she was in, mostly from his horrendous coffee breath. He leaned back again, watching as she formulated her reply, opening and closing her mouth as she tried to think of a response.

“I’m Amelia George, waitress at Big Tasty’s, and you – Director Fury – need a breath mint, and if you think you’re lording it over me, you have another thing coming.” Neither of them was prepared for the howl of laughter that came from the in-car speakers. Fury twitched slightly, while Amelia jumped in her seat. 

“STARK, YOU’RE GOING TO PAY FOR THAT!” 

\--

“Oh, hey, more guns. Just what I wanted to see today.” Amelia says sarcastically, as she’s thrown into a holding cell in the SHIELD building, she might like guns, but not when they’re pointed at her, more as when they’re decorative. She just about stops herself from face planting the wall, there’s been enough damage done for today to her. The door slips closed behind her, she bangs against it a bit before going and sitting in the corner across from the door, leaning her head against the cool wall. She closed her eyes for a few moments and started to plan. 

She knew how to get out of the ziptie cuffs that had been put on her. Well she vaguely remembers a lesson from her school days where they showed a video of how to get out of them, one thing stands out is hip bones and smash. So she stands and tries to snap them off the way that girl did in the video. After the fourth time, she manages to snap them and it hurts like a fucking bitch. She leans against the wall for a moment, catching her breath. But not for too long as they’d be monitoring her, they’d know that she broke her restraints by now. Maybe she could just sit at the table, and be cool and collected and as sarcastic as she could. Maybe she could make a mad dash for the door...

 _And get shot, George, even that’s not your plan._

Sitting at the table and being sarcastic seems the best bet, may just keep her alive long enough for her to figure out what the hell is going on.  
She pulled her phone free of her bra, workers aren’t supposed to have their phones on them at all during work time, but Amelia doesn’t trust the lockers. They’ve been installed since the seventies and half of them don’t lock. Her manager makes the exception simply because of her mother and father. What was strange was the fact that she didn’t have any sort of cell reception, not even for her to call the police and beg to be rescued. There was nothing. Might have cell blockers or something. She put her phone down on the table and proceeded to put everything she had in her pockets on the table; phone, purse, envelope of money, metro pass and a small packet of bubblegum. She then takes her jacket off, places it neatly on the back of the chair and sits at the table. Waiting.

It was another thirty seconds before Fury and another man walked in, looking rather relaxed about the fact that she wasn’t restrained. They sat down at the table across from her and read over the file in Fury’s hand. The other man grinned at her, and reached his hand out towards her. “Tony Stark, nice to not have you screaming in my face for once.” Amelia immediately noted him down as cocky bastard before smiling as sweetly as she could – like she would for a job interview. “You should know, the only thing in that file is a piece of paper that says that yes, you are human, but you are saturated in tachyons. This for what you went through is totally expected.” She nodded, no idea what a tachyon was but she still nodded. “But, the only person who has the name ‘Amelia George’, was a 70 year old woman who lived in Brooklyn until 1991 when she died.” 

“I’m 23, nearly 24.” She gives as a response, plain and simple. “I was born in July. On the 17th. In the year 1991.” The date rolled off her tongue and Fury and Stark exchanged a glance at one another, it gave her that uneasy feeling again. “My ID is in my purse if you wish to check.” Fury pulls her purse across the table and opens it to check her ID. He pulls a sort of scanner from his pocket and scans it. It beeps and flashes green. She hopes that means that it’s something good, rather than bad. 

“Clearly, either that, or you have the secret to the super-soldier serum. As you would have been alive in the 40’s.” That earned Stark a blank look, she knew about the super solder serum, but, after what had happened. She tried to not remember that... “You don’t remember Captain America?” She shook her head no. “You obviously don’t know who I am or you’d be throwing yourself at me.” He says, Amelia snorts and tries to hide the rest of her laughter behind her hands. “What was that for?”

“You’re attractive and everything, but self-righteous dickbags aren’t my type.” She says, earning a nicer chuckle from Fury and a scowl from Stark. “Look, I have no cell reception, I kinda really need to check in on my mom too. Can I go home now, please? The jokes over, very funny, look I’m splitting my sides.” The whole sarcasm thing had gone out the window, except as a defensive wall between herself and her captors. Stark’s scowl melted as he realised that she really was just a scared teenager trying to get home. 

Fury sighed and put the folder down, “I told you before, Ms. George,” He used her name loosely as if it was just a prototype, “This is no joke, we believe that you are not from this Earth, but a parallel one. A secret organisation called HYDRA has been creating technology that can cross the void between dimensions, and we believe that you have been pulled across from your dimension to this one for a reason. Until we find that reason, you are to be placed in the care of SHIELD.” Amelia hoped that that didn’t mean what she thought it meant. She couldn’t live in one of those holding cells for the rest of her life. She could already feel the walls closing in on her. 

“I just want to go home.” She whispered quietly, tears prickling her eyes as the actual severity of the situation settled on her. “Please, I don’t care who you are, how much money you’ve spent on this elaborate prank... just let me walk home.” 

“What was the weather like when you left work today?” Stark asked softly, Amelia replied with the fact that it was the biggest rain storm of the century. “It’s the hottest day of the year, here.” She nodded, remembering Fury’s words, the kids playing in the sunshine. “I’m guessing that your cell has no reception, what network are you on?” Again she replied with, BlackBerry. “That’s a phone company, in this world. Not a network, although our fruit named network is called Orange.” She angrily wiped the tears from her cheeks as they escaped, she would not cry in front of her kidnappers. Stark turned to Fury and shook his head, motioned for him to follow outside as he stood up.

Amelia listened to a muffled argument about her. Fury arguing that she should be detained in the building. Stark arguing that she should be protected, not detained as she hadn’t done anything wrong, and who better to protect her than the Avengers. Fury finally, after a good five minutes, gave in and told Stark to ‘do whatever the hell you want.’ Stark put his head around the door and told her to grab her coat, she was walking out of here with him. She nodded and gathered her stuff silently. 

“Whoever you are,” Amelia said as they hit the New York air, there were buildings missing from the iconic skyline, she went to ask about it but thought it could wait. She might as well be trapped in a parallel world now, it was that last thing that put it all in to place. So instead she sighed and looked up to him, “Thank you, I’m sorry about screaming at you.” Stark just nodded as a car pulled up, he gestured for her to get in and she willingly obliged. 

“I’m used to it now, only usually it comes with a little less fear, and a little more adoration.”

“Maybe next time.”


	3. Unexpected

For a few seconds after walking into the common area of Avengers tower; Amelia freezes up, not because of Natasha’s cold glare that was thrown in her direction or the looks of interest from the others, but because someone she knows is there. She stares at Steve, her face lights up then she thinks that he’s the one that’s orchestrated this little joke it turns to an expression of pure anger and sadness. Because if he’s put her through this terrifying day, he’s gonna get one hell of a punch. “ _Steve!_ ” Amelia exclaimed, her voice almost constricted by the cross between anger and pure happiness that was thick in her voice. “You’re ali-...?” Steve looked up and stood up at the same time. He recognised the young woman and laughed slightly. He ran to her and picked her up, swinging her around. He looked to a bewildered Tony and the rest of the team. “I can't believe it,” He looked down to her, thinking she was the 1945 version of her. “Is Bucky here as well?” Steve froze up at the mention of his best friend’s name. “What is it? What’s wrong? Steve?” She asked as he let her go, holding her at arm’s length and really looking at her.

“Bucky didn’t make it back from the war.” He whispers out to her. She doesn’t know what war he’s talking about, as far as she knew there hadn’t been a war in at least 10 years or so, but she knows about the war on the streets. It hurts a huge part of her to hear that Bucky was gone. And with Bucky gone, who would look after Steve, make sure he stayed out of trouble? She hoped that the job never fell to Stark. “He fell from a train and...” She opened and closed her mouth trying to think of a good way of consoling her friend, what if that hadn’t happened in her world yet? She’d only seen Bucky earlier that day, while walking into work that morning. He threw a chocolate bar at her from the bodega that he works at. He did that most mornings. They were from the same neighbourhood, of course they looked out for one another. 

But most importantly, when did she start believing that she was in a different world to her own? _When she found Steve alive..._

“How are you here?” Steve asked, his voice quiet and sad. It was strange seeing a friend that he thought he’d lost. He noticed how much older her big brown eyes looked than to what she actually was, like she’d seen things that no young woman should ever have to see. She shook her head. Not really having a clear answer for him. He smiled again, “I don’t care how you got here, you’re here.” He gripped her shoulder tightly and hugged her again.  
Stark cleared his throat, to actually step in and ruin their moment. They pulled apart slowly; “It’s cute you two know each other but... We think she’s from an alternate timeline, where technology is slightly further ahead, but the World War 2 hasn’t happened yet or it’s on the verge of happening. She could know you from her timeline, rather than this one. As unfortunately, Ms. George in this world died before you got defrosted.” Steve let her go. “But, that doesn’t mean that she isn’t the same girl you grew up with or whatever. There could be some shared memories, not everything in an alternate timeline is different. Just slightly fucked up from what we call normal.” 

“Watch your mouth,” Steve grumbled, “There’s ladies present.” Gesturing from Natasha to Pepper and Darcy – Jane was off somewhere in the mountains looking for something science-y as Steve remembered it, he might like the science talk, but it mostly went over his head when it came to astrophysics. Tony just flashed a grin that said that they didn’t really mind hearing it, but some of his 40’s values had stuck with him. Mostly the more chivalrous ones, the ones about sexuality went out the window as soon as he was able to competently use the internet. 

Steve watched as Amelia sat down by the window, looking out over the darkening city. As he remembered Amelia, from the 40’s, she was something of a gun nut; he wondered if that was still true. By the look in her eyes, she’d seen enough violence in her lifetime – it was the same look of slowly giving up soldiers that he’d seen in the camps that he’d been in Germany. Shell shock they had called it in his day. She may not have been the same person as he knew but she was in a different way. Even he didn’t understand it, but he knew that at least, he had someone that knew him – even if it was an alternate version of him – to keep him sane in this new world for the both of them. 

He starts over to her, thinking that she needs some company, but Pepper shakes her head. The words a mother’s touch slipped from her lips as she instead walked over to the young woman. Steve watched as Amelia couldn’t stop the tears from coming anymore. Pepper pulled her into a hug, noting that she was still soaking wet from the rain in her world. She’s sure that Tony will want her clothes to run tests on. They sit by the window for another few moments before they stand and disappear off somewhere to get her some clean, warmer clothes before she caught a chill. Amelia shook her head; no one in her world had caught a cold in a while. But that didn’t mean that she couldn’t in this world. 

-

A while later, Pepper comes back without Amelia, looking upset; Tony notices it first. But, not wanting to anger his lover by outing it in front of everyone, as she herself hasn’t said anything. He waits until they’re alone, well mostly alone – Clint’s there in the ceiling somewhere, probably. They’re sat watching the big screen TV and for once Pepper isn’t talking over the programme that’s on, so Tony knows there’s something wrong. He opens his mouth to ask about it, but she got there before he could. 

“She couldn’t figure out what buildings were missing from the skyline. I was talking to her, and she was looking around outside from the windows. Then she asked, pointing outside, ‘hey, isn’t that where the WTC should be?’ and I didn’t know what to do. I just told her about the planes and her eyes went wide ‘You mean here they managed to do it. One of my friends works in there.’ It didn’t happen where she’s from Tony.” Pepper stopped for a second, “She told me about what her America’s like. There’s a war, but not in Germany. It’s happening in New York, it’s Civil War on the streets about their Government and the rate that technology is evolving. I think there’s a small part of her that’s glad to be away from all of that... Don’t tell Cap, but, she got shot.” Tony’s listening intently so he switches the TV off so he can concentrate better, startled by the development. “Nothing too serious, ‘nothing a med patch couldn’t help’, I didn’t understand what that meant so I didn’t ask. She was late back after curfew – they have curfews on the general public Tony – and some of the anti-government types, she did tell me the name... Came shooting past where she was walking back from work. There was a kid out, caught out after they lost track of time. She saw the flash of a gun and grabbed the kid, pulling him out of the way.” 

Tony was slightly maddened by the thought that the world she came from is much worse than this one. He had hoped, with the advance in tech it would have been a better place for everyone. Not causing people to riot and cause people to split into factions. But, different timelines and jazz. Pepper sighs and heads off to bed, leaving Tony to brood angrily about the way the universes work. He’d been drafted by Fury to help find a way of reversing the ‘shift’ as he’d called it, but there was no way in hell he’d send her back there. It would be... who was he kidding, no world was safe. If, like it was thought, HYDRA were behind the ‘shift’ then they’d be after her. 

But, as much of a dick and an ass as Tony might be, after seeing the way she reacted when the first few doubts about this whole world being a joke cracked in her head, he was suddenly all fatherly about her and didn’t want to see any harm come to her. He wouldn’t forgive himself, that’s why he fought for her to be brought here, he didn’t want her to be forgotten in a cell somewhere, being given food every other couple of days, or being treated like some of the HYDRA scum they have in SHIELD lock up. She wasn’t one of them. Tony may not be good with affection or feelings, but he would fight tooth and nail for those that were innocent parties.

He could feel it, she wasn’t one of them, just by hearing that she protected that boy in the shoot out – a HYDRA operative wouldn’t do that, they wouldn’t even protect their own soldiers. It takes him a minute to realise that he just called her a soldier, until a few moments ago, she was just a civilian. Now, he wonders if she’s ever fired a gun, protecting someone or otherwise.

He’s not sure he even wants to know.

That night, he doesn’t go to bed. He just goes and stays in the workshop, doing work on his suit. He lost track of the time, it wasn’t until Pepper sent Dumm-E with a breakfast sandwich and a small ‘see you later’ note that he even looked at the clock.


	4. HYDRA come to Visit

Natasha watched the new comer closely, looking for any sort of sign that she was sent from HYDRA to fuck shit up. She had been made aware of the situation almost as soon as Stark and George had left the SHIELD building. No doubt Tony already knew that she had been alerted to the whole ‘the only people that could have the tech to do this is HYDRA, therefore she is probably going to turn out evil’ warning that had been send to her from Fury. But so far, she seemed pretty harmless. Hell, she was beginning to warm to the kid as it turns out – after overhearing the conversation between Stark and Pepper – she has had a pretty shitty childhood. But, out of all of the Avengers, who hadn’t? At least she hadn’t been through what Natasha had, and for that she was thankful for small mercies. No one should have had to go through that.

The next morning, Natasha catches her looking at her guns, it being Stark’s tower – there are weapons everywhere, hi-tech and lo-tech. It had become a normal day to day occurrence that someone would leave a gun or a small knife somewhere or a small missile launcher(but that's another story). Only now, on high alert, it felt like an age before Amelia asked if she was allowed to look at the guns, she explained that she didn’t like shooting them, but the science of different guns; how they worked and how they were put together. “I have tips on how to keep them cleaner without having to go through all the various taking it all a part and putting it all back together again.” And that was it, Natasha officially moved her down from ‘high threat’ to ‘mild threat’. There were elements of herself that she could see in Amelia. But they sat down and she showed how in the field if her gun jams how to fix it quickly. 

They spent the rest of that day bonding over guns.

And it answered questions for two other people. 

Steve sat at the breakfast bar and watched them, Amelia speaking and showing while Natasha listens and takes it all in. He wonders if she has the memory of them buying an air soft rifle and the three of them – him, Bucky and her, going into Central park, and shooting cans from the trees. He missed every time, but her and Bucky hit every can 3 times before Bucky accidentally hit a bird’s nest and knocked it from the tree. Amelia climbed up to the fallen nest and checked on the birds and made sure that they were okay before putting them back where they came from. He just liked watching them play even if he couldn’t join in with some of the more vigorous games. They tried to keep him involved as much as possible by making him the warden of most of their games. So if something was too close to call (or if Bucky had cheated) he would rule it in one way or another. It was nice to have friends like that. 

He sighed and took a sip of his coffee, Bruce was making himself a cup of tea, he stood with Steve while the other two obliviously played with their guns. He patted Steve on the shoulder, he was wary of Amelia. Not because of whom she was, but he was always wary around new comers. But as the shouting from the lab indicated, she was going to be staying awhile. Tony was telling Fury that he wasn’t sending her back to that world, not only for Cap’s sake – Steve resented that – but for her sake. 

An eerie peace spread over the tower after that. Surprisingly, Clint felt it first, his deafness making him hypersensitive in other ways, like an electric hum in the air. Then Natasha as she was listening to what Amelia was saying. Steve next as he felt all the hairs on his body stand on end like static had just run over him. Slowly, one by one they all met in the middle of the common room and waited. Could just be one of Thor’s elaborate ways of getting into this realm, or something. But, it didn’t feel like it was that kind of thing, Thor usually finds a way of warning of his entrance.

All the windows in the top half of Avenger’s Tower shattered. 

Fury shot Tony an ‘I-fucking-told-you-so’ look. But, as HYDRA operatives propelled down from a helicopter above them. Tony turned to Amelia; “I promise I won’t shoot you.” He pulled her towards him, holding one of the guns that she had just been playing with to her head. Amelia was getting more and more exasperated at this predicament she was in. They all aimed at their respective counterparts in the room. HYDRA guns clicked as their safeties were taken off, then an inevitable sound coming from the ceiling. Clint was hanging there from the rafters, looking scary with his bow and arrow read for action. 

Neither team did anything, neither team wanted to harm the girl, she just looked as innocent in all this as she could and that wasn’t hard because she was still trying to get her head around what the actual fuck was going on. She had no idea that they were HYDRA agents or anything like that. All she saw was the fact that there was going to be a hell of a lot of fighting going on in a few, fighting that she didn’t want to be a part of. Until, a man stepped through the soldiers that had trespassed on Stark’s building, looking smug as anything. Something’s don’t change; Von Doom still pretty much runs the world. She instinctively took a step back into Tony and bowing her head, not realising it. Tony tightened his grip around her. 

“Never thought that I’d see you working with HYDRA,” Bruce says indignantly, Doctor Doom smiles maliciously at him. It takes everything for Bruce not to Hulk out, he doesn’t like being looked down to at the best of times. But, now is not the time to Hulk out as all of those men and women opposite them are on a hair trigger, anything could cause them to start shooting and its better off not risking it even though Hulk can take bullets like they’re splinters. 

“You don’t realise what you have there,” Doctor Doom intones, his voice low and dangerous. “She is the product of money and power and a world in chaos. She is everything this world needs in a soldier. All of her training was done in her early life, as Captain Rogers knows so well. The technology in her world is much more advanced than in our own, even with Stark’s... tinkering. They have gauze pads that have tiny nanobot’s in them that heal the wound... All that from a world that is sinking fast into their version of the ‘20’s depression.” He shot a smile over to Amelia who tried to shrink back even more. He laughs at her. “Are you as terrified of me in this world as you are in your own? Care to explain to them why?”

“After you realised that ruling over Latvaria in my world wasn’t enough, you decided that it was high time that you ruled the rest of it. He overthrew the US government overnight... We had no one to stop him. The stock market crashed, he started killing those that were a threat to his regime.” She stopped and her eyes shot to Steve then back to Doctor Doom, “He found out about the Resistors, found where they were doing all their testing... He found out about the super-soldier serum and blew the place up before anyone had the chance to get out of there. The reason I didn’t know Captain America by anything other than Steve Rogers was because he didn’t get the chance to be Captain America.” She took a steadying breath, trying to keep composure as it was only a few weeks ago for her. “I was forced by an Enforcer to watch the place burn to the ground, as was Bucky and his mother. I still don’t know who cried more.” Her face was hard, emotionless as she said it, but everyone could see how much it hurt her to say that.

Doom gives a grin, happy that the parallel version of him’s doing so well, reigning in terror, everything that he wanted for himself and more. “Hand her over to us, we’ll take her out of your hands, turn her into the potential that she is. She is the product of our technology. Chosen for a specific reason... Not just for her deep connection to Captain Rogers.” Tony’s arm tightened again around her shoulders as Doom took a step forwards towards her, the gun still against her head, it was beginning to be uncomfortable for her. Steve stepped in front of her and Tony to stop Doom getting any closer to her.

“No. You may have found a way to step between worlds, but you don’t rule this one.” Steve told him firmly, making sure that he was standing between them, “This world thankfully is a free world, to anyone that happens to come to it, through whatever means that there are. There is always a choice and going by the story that has just been told, I’m going for the fact that she’s staying with us.” She nodded furiously; there was no way that she was letting Steve slip through her fingers again. Doom glared, he was so used to getting his own way, not many had said ‘no’ to him and lived. Soon, the glare melted into a soft, disarming smile. One that he had used as a tactic so many times to get his adversaries to drop their guard. But the Avengers were well versed in Doom’s tactics. “You’d better leave, Doom. You are not welcome here.” 

“Oh, please. I’m not going anywhere. I want to make sure you all die painfully at the hands of my soldier friends here. See, HYDRA has been nice enough to lend me their disposable resources, while I develop the technology. Well, I did just that. But they were so thankful for my help in creating a world like yours, with the death of Captain Rogers, the world was theirs and mine to rule. So, the let me have as much money as I wanted and a small army to rule, but, unfortunately I know that there is someone to stop me from taking over the world.” He looked to each one of the Avengers, before turning and calling it all off. He looked back, “Watch your back, Amelia George, this isn’t over.”

Almost as quickly as they had come, they were gone. Leaving them alone in their tower, the wind whistling through the building from where the windows had shattered. All eyes on the young new comer. Tony lowered the gun away from her head and put it on the table behind her. Doctor Doom’s threatening words looming over them all as slowly, one by one, they went about their business.


	5. Hot Chocolate

That night, Amelia had nightmares about that day, the day that her Steve died. She could feel the heat from the fire on her skin, the smell of burning flesh and hot tar clinging in the air as she wailed out to the burning building in front of her in her dreams. Kneeling in the dust and rubble as an Enforcer laughs behind her, Bucky’s hand on her shoulder, cold and clammy against her skin. Steve’s mom crying against his shoulder. The fire licks out from the building and starts pulling Bucky into it. Steve’s mom bursting into flames next to her. The whole street igniting around her, the sparks and flames eating everything in their path. She’s too weak to do anything about it, she just watches with tears burning in her eyes as she loses two other friends, because Bucky’s not in this world, Steve’s mom’s been dead for ages.

She shouts out and wakes up feeling like she’s fallen from somewhere. She can still feel the fear and feel the heat, but it goes when she opens a window; all the heat in the room sucked out and changed into cool night air. The smells of the city wafting into the room and calming her. There wasn’t the smell of fires burning or people screaming. The odd sounds of this world’s Enforcers – police, they’re called here – going around after bad guys of this world. It was nice to know that she wasn’t on their most wanted for once. 

Ending up in the living room of her small, guest apartment in Stark Tower, she was watching late night infomercials and dozing on the sofa. Her hand trailing through the rough shag of the rug under her hand. She’d felt the panic rising in her dream and she needed time to put it all into order before she went back to sleep. The glow of the TV was keeping her awake while she started to put things into perspective.

_1\. Steve is still alive, and he’s doing fine, the super-soldier serum worked._  
 _2\. Bucky isn’t here._  
 _3\. Doctor Doom doesn’t rule the world._  
 _4\. I don’t see any downside to this world, except Bucky._ .

The tech wasn’t half as advanced as what they’d got from the Tesseract. She’d have to ask about that tomorrow or something, that’s if anyone wants to talk to her. Everyone sees her as a potential threat, she was brought here by an evil force to do god knows what damage to this world. Not that she wants too; she doesn’t want to do anything to hurt anyone. There’s too much damaged done in her own world that can’t be fixed. There’s no way that she’s going to do any in this world. Eventually the infomercials stop and go into normal, everyday, boring morning TV. Good Morning New York playing out to the darkened room as the first rays of morning light spill through the half closed blinds, casting red and gold patterns across the white walls as the sun comes up in the east. It warms the room and slowly warms her skin as the night chilled her slightly. 

JARVIS chimed in at around 9 AM, “Ma’am, Sir has requested that you join him and the team in the main communal zone.” She about shit herself in fright, jumping up and using the remote as a weapon. He had been quiet all night and most of the day. Letting her flick through channels with a remote control rather than doing it for her, letting her open the window rather than changing the climate controls for her. “I did not mean to startle you, Ma’am.” She just splutters in fright at the talking AI. “I do not wish to harm you, or scare you in any way, I apologise for any wrong doing.” She’s still waving the remote around as the door opens to Tony and Steve, she hurls it at them, only missing Tony by a few centimetres and it smashing and cracking against the wall. He looks between it and her. Steve just brushes past him, his friend is in distress and he doesn’t know what to do. 

What shocks both Tony and Steve is the fact that she pushes Steve away, shaking her head as she tries her hardest to calm down. She’s been alone long enough that she doesn’t need the embrace of a friend to calm her down. “There was a voice... That told me to meet you... It came from fucking nowhere, NOWHERE.” She mumbles at Tony hysterically, she takes a breath, shakily. Compartmentalise, analyse, think. It’ll make sense if you do that. “I thought that your tech wasn’t as advanced.” She says, her voice is still a little raw, but it’s calmer. Her shoulders still rise and fall rapidly, but she’s slowly calming herself down, slowly. They watch as she closes her eyes, curls and uncurls her toes in the carpet, as she breathes deeply a few more times, before opening her brown doe eyes and smiling softly and shaking her head slightly. “I’m sorry.” 

“Don’t be, I forgot to tell JARVIS to shut off the ‘scare the crap out of people who aren’t used to him protocol.’ My bad.” Tony says, “JARVIS is my AI, he keeps my whole crib working to each individuals needs, he’s kind of sentient but still fully programmable. He’s a cheeky shit sometimes too.” Steve shoots him a look for the swearing, but Tony waves it away, thinking that for what he was about to say would make up for it. “I’m sorry that he scared you, it wasn’t his or my intention, well it had been if it was anyone but you.” She nods, looking around rather than at them. “I can ask him to not bother you, if it makes you that anxious.” Again, she nods. Tony nods back. “Capsicle over there couldn’t deal with JARVIS for a few months until he settled in properly. Now, he’s a whiz with these ‘new fangled gizmos’.” Tony grinned trying to be light-hearted; it worked as she laughed slightly. Steve visibly relaxed. “Hey, maybe you should go fondue or something? Coffee?”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Steve ventured after shooting Tony another ‘shut-the-hell-up’ kind of look. “If I’m with you, Doom isn’t going to go after you. Hopefully, he’ll figure out how to do it with more people and leave you the hell alone.” The hope of that happening evident in his voice. She didn’t like the idea of going out at first, but he promised to pay for anything she wanted. 

She turned to him and grinned, “Do you have hot chocolate here?” 

\--

As they’re a walking around the city, she notices that there are differences. Times Square is a whole lot busier than in her world. More lights and billboards and holy shit is that a filled martini glass in the centre of one of the billboards? In her world it’s more about singing the praises of their lord and master, that’s why she doesn’t watch TV that much. Last night had been the first time that she had watched something that hadn’t been endorsed by Von Doom. He’s not as prominent here, thank god. He’s just an the means to an end, and that’s nice. She laughed and pointed things out that were different to Steve, just like any other interdimensional tourist would. It was nice. 

Steve pulled her into a tiny little cafe and with his big shoulders and the shelves upon shelves of books in there were made him look like he’d just crawled into a Hobbit hole. He looked like he’d been shoehorned into the booth they sat at while he drank his tea and she drank her hot chocolate. She tucked some of her light blonde hair behind her ear as she takes a deep breath and keeps looking outside. Steve just liked watching her. All the worry lines that had been etched in her face that afternoon had gone, smoothed out by the pure happiness that rested on her face as she looked out over Central Park. Absently, he pulled out his phone and snapped a photo of her as she sat there. She grinned at him and turned to face him properly. 

“So,” She started, thinking about what she should say. It had been a pretty good morning, and she knew that he had questions about different things, as she had her own questions to ask, it was about time they got to ask them to one another. “Is there anything you want to ask about?” Amelia waited, taking a sip of her hot chocolate. “Hot damn, that’s some good hot chocolate.” Steve chuckled and shook his head. “Sorry. Go ahead.”

“Do you remember that time we went shooting the tins in Central Park?” He asked casually, he’d wanted to know since he’d seen her with Nat’s guns. The grin that spread over her face said everything; it was as if the whole world had been lifted from her shoulders as she nodded slightly. The smile actually reaching her eyes for once in the whole time she’d been here and god damn it was beautiful... _Shut up, Rogers._

She was still grinning as she spoke. “Bucky hit the can wrong and it knocked a nest of birds down onto the next branch. I just climbed up there, no fear – I was just worried about the birds, they were only fledglings, tiny little creatures – and made sure that nothing was hurt before I lifted it back onto the right branch.” She took another sip of her hot chocolate, “Buck thought I was gonna kill him, the look of ‘oh shit, maybe if I don’t say anything she might not hurt me...’ on his face was hilarious. No harm was done, so, there was no need to be mad. I just told him to be more careful and that we should look for another tree.” Steve nodded, Stark had said about shared memories; there would be moments like the ones he was avoiding by wanting to talk about the better times. But the more they talked the darker the memories became.

She told him about the drive by, about how many times she’d had to patch Bucky up after there had been a fight or something (explaining that at least 75% of them were ones that he hadn’t caused), that one night in 2007/1937 where Bucky and she had been sat in a hospital waiting room and the doctors said ‘I don’t think Steve’s going to make the night’, the feeling when Steve proved them wrong. The feeling of three of them cramped into a tiny bed in the winter to keep Steve warm. Standing at three different funerals, after an Enforcer/Resistors fire-fight, Steve and Bucky at either side of her. Finally, standing at Steve’s funeral, the empty seat at the side of her cold and waiting for it to be filled. 

And all this time, Steve just listened. Because he knew that Bucky was a good friend. But Bucky didn’t listen. He half listened anything he was ever told. It got to ‘don’t do that Bucky because...’ then he’d stop listening because there was something he wanted and he would get it.  
She touched his hand, gently, probably barely realising that she was doing it. Just needing to be reminded that he was fucking real, that the Erskine’s crazy ass plan had fucking worked and Doom hadn’t stopped it before it could even happen. She smiled sadly. “I... That was only a couple of months back. That we lost you. We stopped fighting. Both Enforcers and Resistors. They just laid down their arms, because, you were a good man... You still are a good man. Von Doom told them to storm the funeral, because it would be a ‘hub of Resistors’, but they said no. It was just a family funeral. They’d done the intel. It was just Bucky, your mother and I. While everyone else mourned quietly while doing their jobs. Can’t miss a day’s work.” He knew what the Depression was like, how hard it had been on everyone. Then it was his turn, talking about how at first there was nothing that he could do but be a chorus girl to keep the spirits up of those that needed it, about how he became Captain America, about Peggy. How he went looking for Bucky and found him in Germany, about the Howling Commando’s and their missions, about losing Bucky, about Red Skull and HYDRA, and about falling into the ice. She listened, none of this had happened in her world, or it was about too. The Howling Commando’s gave her a bit of hope for her own world. It’d be nice to have someone fighting on their side that had a bit of goodness in them, and Bucky was a part of them. So he’d be leading the good guys, because Steve wasn’t there to do it. But, after everything, she had faith in him. 

“Amy...” Steve started; it had been a while since anyone had called her that. People tended to stick to Amelia, and she hated that, no matter how many times she asked for them to call her Amy. She was still brushing her fingers over his knuckles, she drew away sharply when she suddenly realised what she was doing. “We... should... We should go.” She nodded, looking down. There had only three times Steve had been able to embarrass Amy, he added another mark to the tally. 

They left, side by side, feeling like the walls between their worlds were just a little bit weaker between them.

But, she was still hiding something and Steve wasn’t sure if he wanted to know what it was.


	6. Home and Work

In the weeks that she stays in Stark Tower, when Amelia’s alone, she thinks, to the point where she overthink’s things. She couldn’t sleep again. She was wondering too much about her mom and dad – they were pretty much alone at this point, Bucky knew enough to check in on them, but had they realised that she was missing yet? It had been two days, what if they think she’s been killed and no one knows anything about it. What if they think that Von Doom has taken her? She paces around the room. She worries because her parents are older people, they wouldn’t survive another raid, and she misses her own bed. 

When she finally settles enough to actually sleep, it doesn’t come easy as nightmares about the fire are now mixed with nightmares of a war she hasn’t fought in; nightmares of Bucky falling, the Valkyrie going down. She was being taunted by the world that she wasn’t born in. It was nice to see a world of freedom, but the bitter lies that lay under the sweet skin of the world were just beginning to hit her, their news was full of them. Fox being the main publication of the lies, having ties to Von Doom. 

She sits in the window, watching the sun break over the city. The sun shining against glass of the buildings, reflecting and casting rainbows on the walls of other buildings. The colour of this world is so much brighter and vivid than in hers, colours get dulled by the bloodshed and bleaching. And it’s beautiful here. The warmth of the sun on her face, rather than the cold, stinging splatter of rain. The warmth of summer breathing a fresh life into her heart, painting a soft smile on her pale face as she relaxes in the window. He head rested against the wall behind her head and a few soft colours playing across her skin. 

Yes, this place is wonderful. 

But, it’ll never be her home. 

Eventually, she makes her way to the common area, rubbing her head. The dark circles under her eyes showing how little sleep and how little sleep she’d been having. The rest of the team are slowly getting used to her early morning presence and her late night appearances in the common area. Because usually there’s someone else there too. As for all of the Avengers, nightmares are a problem. She spoke with Bruce and Tony about the better aspects of the technology in her world, the medical tech and the leaps in medicine that have been made. Tony likes hearing the nicer stories of Captain Spangles past, the memories might be slightly out, or just outright wrong for something’s, but they’re all true to his character and to some of the stories that he has heard from his father about it. 

Other times she see’s Clint, making some sort of drink or just looking for something sweet. She would make him pancakes. There’d be no chatter, as neither of them saw eye-to-eye on something’s. But, she would try to keep it civil between them and pancakes are a good way to call a truce over things. Neither of them trust each other as he can tell that she’s hiding something as quickly as Nat, but he hides things as well, so he doesn’t push it. He doesn’t want her to turn out evil. They may not see eye-to-eye, but he does like her. He just doesn’t trust her enough to talk to her and she makes some mean pancakes.

When she see’s Darcy they just end up talking about different, crazy ass schemes that’ll end them up in prison, or worse. But god damn they’re fun. Darcy tells her about the tazer she keeps and how she managed to knock the Norse God of Thunder out that one time with her car and the time, in the same day, that she used the tazer on him and knocked him out again. Amelia isn’t sure it’s true, but it’s a story that makes her smile all the same.   
Eventually, when they’re feeling that little bit over tired, they smile at each other and part ways and maybe, just maybe they’ll have a better night’s sleep than the night before. 

-

She’d been there two months and Doom doesn’t try anything, still biding his time, but, Fury doesn’t let her out of his sight. She’s always got a tracker or tracer on her at all times. Not that Amy knows it. For once, more than one person calls her Amy after the whole ‘Amelia is too formal, makes it sound like I’m in trouble all the time. New world, new standards. Please, call me Amy...’ plea. Everyone is more than happy to oblige, Amelia is always a mouthful to get out if there’s something going down and they need to get her out of there at a seconds notice. Steve doesn’t like it, but he doesn’t say anything. He liked it when it was just him calling her Amy. But, Stark picked up on it and started doing it. So, he tries to find another pet name to call her. But nothing suits her more than Amy.

Things were beginning to feel like she was in a liveable environment. Yeah, there was still a war going on, but she was far away from it. There wasn’t the constant threat that a building was going to be bombed or that there was the constant ‘pop, pop, pop’ of a gun going off and not knowing if it was just around the corner. It was peaceful for the most part. It was like an overly long holiday. She’s in the process of finding a job, but Von Doom keeps buying all the places that she applies at and it’s not like she has a particularly good skill set for any one thing. She’s just got bored of bumming around Stark’s Tower. 

Yes, there’s a whole history of a world to learn about, but she wants to get out there and learn it. She keeps rejecting Fury’s offers of a job at SHIELD, not because she dislikes him, but because it puts her on the map to be killed or kidnapped and tested on. It’s a boring desk job. Eventually, she finds and internship at a New York hospital and things are looking up for her. She’d always wanted to help people, now that’s exactly what she was doing. (She’ll never know about Stark’s influence in her application success.) 

Working in the hospital, she made new friends quickly, clicking together with all the other intern nurses, and even some of the doctors. It didn’t take long for her to be a firm favourite on the Emergency Room shifts with both the doctors and the people that came in to be treated. One night, there had been some sort of fight between some apparently rogue DoomBot’s and the Avengers, it had been on the news screen in the Emergency Room waiting area, there had been a particularly nasty shot of a DoomBot swinging for Captain America as he tried to take it down, but caught him mid jump, sending him flying into a building. The wall smashed as he went through it. The whole room waited with bated breath as Thor and Tony finished it off. Cap had yet to resurface from the wreckage. 

Half an hour later, Tony flew into the Emergency Room with Cap in his arms demanding that Amelia help him, she consoled him instead, after the Doctors took over. She did not know how to handle the size of that head injury and it was a regulation that friends and family can’t be treated by someone they know personally. He took the suit off and sent it back to the tower with JARVIS relaying the message of what was happening. They sat in silence inside a private waiting room where the Doctors worked to keep Captain America alive. 

“It’s like 2007 all over again, Buck.” She mumbled, taking Tony’s hand, not really thinking about what she was doing or saying. She’d had a long ass day with the amount of people that had come in from being injured in the fight. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the door area, waiting for news. They had bonded over their mutual affection of the Star Spangled Man with a Plan. Tony saw her as that kid that he’d never wanted but loved all the same. She saw him as that brother that was an ass but kinda was alright when he needed to be. “I can’t do a 2007 again.” And then things clicked together in Tony’s head like how the fuck did he miss that? 

“You really love him, don’t you?” She didn’t turn to look at him but her silence said all. It made a lot more sense that she really did love him. “You should probably tell him that, when he gets out of here,” She shook her head, coming back into the real world. She did that sometimes, kind of forgets where she was, thinking she was in the wrong world. Tony didn’t understand the 2007 reference, but it must have been bad. “He’s a Super Soldier, Amy. It’ll take more than a knock to the head to do some damage to him.”

“He may be a Super Soldier, but he’s human. Just like me, just like you.” She hissed, looking at Tony. “It may have made him buff and strong, made him confident, but he’s still a fucking human. From what I’ve seen, humans are pretty breakable and soft.” She jabbed his chest where the Arc Reactor was. “He went through a stone wall, a thick stone wall, and he’s in a fucking hospital. It’s a little more serious than a knock to the head.” She let go of his hand and she moved away from him, picking up some charts that she had been asked to sign off on. “Now is not the time to be talking about feelings. Now is the time to think good thoughts ‘cause there’s a damn good man in there that I’m not ready to lose again.” Her voice was low and tight as she wrote angrily on the charts.

“Amy... I-.” 

“Don’t, Stark. Because, you probably don’t mean it.” 

Steve went into recovery later that night; awake, alive and breathing. Amy ran into his room after the Doctors gave the okay, to see Von Doom whispering something in his ear, the whole time Steve stared at her, a saddened and shocked look etched on his face. Von Doom pulled away and smirked, before ultimately walking away, brushing past Amy without a second glance. She scowled at his back, making sure that he didn’t suddenly decide that she was an important part of a plan that needed to be put in motion right there and then. 

She did the checks that she had been taught to do on the various bits of apparatus that dotted the room, while Steve watched her. Not the kind of watching he had been doing where it had been kind of cute to have him watch her, this was the accusing type; white hot at anything of hers he could see, she felt as if she would have been set on fire with the intensity of his stare. “Is it true?” He asks while she’s stood at the foot of his bed, writing on his chart, she froze knowing exactly what he was asking. “Amelia, tell me,” her name seemed alien coming from his mouth with such anger behind it, “Did you hand over the information in your world about the Super Soldier Serum? Did you... kill me?” The last sounded broken, betrayed. 

“It wasn’t like I knew! I thought I could trust the guy!” Amy seethed at him; Von Doom must have found out about it somehow. She was pissed because she wanted to tell him in her own time. Explain the before part of the Death of Steve Rogers and how she had played a part in his downfall. She sighed and caught her breath, putting his chart away, and tucking the pen back into her pocket. “I was dating this guy, he... at the time I didn’t know he was an undercover Enforcer, he just wanted to know what we were planning and he was reporting it all back to his base. I didn’t know that though Steve. You told me about the Super Soldier experiment. I got all happy and excited about it because there was finally some hope. I thought he was on our side.” She explains. Steve’s jaws tight as he listens to her, her eyes firmly on the floor. “The next thing I know, he’s knocking on my door at like 6am telling me he needs to show me something important. We got on the street for the experiments, and the shop front was just blown out. He held me there, Bucky was there too... And your mom. I could hear people screaming. I thought I could...” She stopped, looking up at him, tears stained her cheeks. “I thought I could hear you screaming.” Steve didn’t believe her, she could tell. “When have I ever lied to you Steve? You’re going to trust Von Doom over me?” He didn’t answer. “I didn’t know. I swear by it.” 

She walked out as Tony walked in.

“Whatever you did, you’re an idiot.” And Tony’s never been more right.


	7. 'I Did it For You and Her'

More weeks went by and Steve and Amy did all they could to avoid each other. As soon as Steve got home – a matter of days after the incident – they refused to be in the same room as each other and spent most of their time in their respective rooms so as not to see one another. Steve did more reckless things with SHIELD, taking on some of the more dangerous missions, the ones that even Clint wouldn’t take and he’s as reckless as Tony sometimes. While Amy took on extra ICU shifts over the top of the ones that she was already doing in Emergency. She even went out with her friends from the hospital more to try and distance herself from the tower. 

One night she found herself with her friends, all just recently learned that she lived her life in Stark Tower, she knew that all they probably wanted to know was about what they got up too in their spare time, but other than Thursday’s they were just boring New Yorkers who had a sideline in saving the world. They were all laughing and joking about different stupid shit that she knew would end up online somewhere sometime soon, but she really didn’t care as most of the stuff was already out there on their own blogs and Facebook’s. 

“But what we really want to know about,” Brie started, tucking some of her golden blonde hair out of her face, giggling slightly from the alcohol that had been consumed and taking another sip of her sambuca, “Is what they’re like in bed?” Amy gawped at her; she could have made something up and be labelled a slut or tell the truth and be labelled a liar among her friends. But the copious amounts of alcohol – the kind that Tony put away sometimes – in her own system made her defensive. 

“I really wouldn’t know, girls,” she said as calmly as she could, looking into the last drops of her drink. “It’s not like that where I’m from.”

“What Atlanta?” 

“Yeah, we kinda just don’t jump into someone’s bed; there’s gotta be some romancin’ in there somewhere...” Amy smiled slightly, and then shook her head clear of thoughts, “Besides, they all probably really dislike me or distrust me to the point where they wouldn’t even dream about it.” She shrugged, drained the last of her drink and glanced at her watch. “I have to go, gotta a shift tomorrow.” She smiled slightly and gathered her things and left. 

It wasn’t until she got back to the tower that she found that her key card to her rooms was missing. She rested her head against the cool wood for a few moments and sighed, before sliding down the door and staying there the night instead; sleeping uncomfortably on the doormat, and her bag as a pillow. She tried really hard not to let her mind wander to conversations and arguments had and it didn’t make her feel any better at all, sleep didn’t come easily, but at least the alcohol numbed the nightmares to a black and white picture show of what could happen in the future. 

The idea that one of her friends might not come home from a mission scared her silly, the idea that Tony would come swaggering in to the Emergency Room and pull her to one side and say something like ‘he’s not coming back this time’. But, she hoped that day would never come, she knew it would at some point and she hoped that the news was broken to her like that rather than watching some newscaster emotionlessly say the words. 

Steve walked back up to his own rooms in the tower, finding Amy sprawled out on the floor outside her room. For a few moments there was initial panic, had she been over powered, had she been knocked out by some bad guy who had tried to get into her life or something? A quick once over of the place and of Amy showed no signs of foul play. The stench of sweet alcohol and pineapples hit him harder than anything as he checked her over for any injuries. 

He’d had a lot of time to think about what had happened in the hospital that night, Von Doom turning up out of nowhere with information as heavy as that; after hitting your head as hard as Steve did, he didn’t believe that he knew just what he was thinking and now that he thought about it, Doom had left some crucial information out of his little tale. The fact that she had been dating one of his counterpart’s officers. She genuinely didn’t know that the person she had told that information too – yes it was a secret mission and the info shouldn’t have been divulged but Steve shouldn’t have told it her in the first place – was someone she couldn’t trust. She’d said about hope and finally having some in her world. He sighed slightly, having already forgiven her weeks ago, but not telling her. He couldn’t believe that he had taken an evil doctor’s words over someone who was good. Even the good make mistakes and he knows that better than anyone. 

Steve takes her bag from under her head gently, making sure not to disturb her too much and rummages around in it, looking for the key-card to get into her room and not finding it anywhere. He sighed and remembered how many times he’d been able to lift her keys from her bag without her noticing it. He slung the bag over his shoulders and carefully lifted her up, bridal style. He was trying to stop the thoughts running through his head as he thought bridal style, there was still a lot of making up she had to do and a lot that he had to do. But this was a start. 

As Steve put her down on his bed, he would sleep on the sofa – if he could get any rest at all, she woke up for a few tense moments, a small smile on her face as their eyes caught. Her soft brown eyes clouded by the mist of sleep and alcohol. She rests a hand on his face, stroking his cheek with her thumb and smiling softly. Words forming on her lips but her mouth and throat too dry for the noise to come out. The tears that rolled down her cheeks said a lot also; even in the darkness he could see the words ‘you’re alive’ drunkenly slur across her lips and prayers of thanks being sent heavenward. 

Her hand had moved to the back of his neck keeping him right there, he reassured her over and over that he wasn’t going anywhere and while she nodded, it looked like she wasn’t letting go of him. It was like seeing Peggy all over again. That had hurt him enough, but this; she was still the same age as him, still the same as him. It hurt him more than it could have with Peggy; it was on about the same par as Bucky. 

After a few more moments, her hand loosened on his neck and her eyes slipped closed again. He climbs in next to her, if she were to ask later; he wouldn’t tell her anything that had happened, he would have just said ‘ _for old time’s sake_ ’ before smiling like water under the bridge, like Von Doom had never told him what she did. 

\- 

Amy was watching from the hospital as SHIELD and HYDRA come to a head against one another once again. She was trying to help as many people as she can while keeping her eyes on the battle. She keeps thinking that Von Doom should be there, but he isn’t. Something about him being holed up in his lab working on some project. It’s a scary thought when he gets to work on a project. Again, it looks like a hopeless fight as the HYDRA weapons run on some form of blue energy.   
It hits her harder than expected, she knows how to disarm them, she knows how to stop it all, but she can’t get out of the hospital to tell them. If HYDRA has developed their weapons using the Tesseract energy – assuming they have one in this world and it’s not just for show – then there’s a way to stop it. God knows how many times she’s had to do it in the middle of a fight. A simple, electro-magnetic pulse. She’d accidentally found out when they were in the middle of a fire-fight and they were running out of munitions so they started throwing everything they had. The Enforcers had weapons of the Tesseract, Resistors just started throwing anything, science experiments, books, the guns they had been using and hell at one point a cake went sailing over head. But, one of the science experiments that were thrown was an electromagnet. It got stuck to one of the weapons and they all stopped working. Watching those little blue lights go out in their guns was a moment of elation.

The wounded were being brought to the hospital as SHIELD’s med-wing was being overrun by the sheer amount of weight behind HYDRA’s weapons. She managed to talk one of the SHIELD agents into giving her his communicator so that she could try and talk to anyone for that matter. She just had to get the information she had out there to one of them, and they might stand a god damn chance against the bad guys. The communicator chattered as she took up the guy’s gun as well. “Well, you ain’t needing it are you? What channel are the Avengers on?” He gave her a glance as in to say, ‘CLASSIFIED INFORMATION’. “I could help save countless lives, gimme the damn channel!” He told her and she started to tune it in to the number he said. 

The first thing she heard was Steve giving orders over the comms, the sounds of his voice straining as he tried god damn hard to get through what he was doing, echoing shots of energy and bullets crashing all over the sound of his voice. For a moment all she could do was listen as her unit clicked into place, it buzzed a ‘communications restored’ in her ear and snapped her back into reality. She opened her mouth to speak only for her to be cut off by Tony talking over the comms about how this sort of thing had become a regular thing. She sighed loudly and ran off into the street, ignoring the protests of her bosses. “You need an electromagnet.” 

“Amy? How’d you...?” Clint asked, there are at least two different endings to that question. “Get somewhere safe, it isn’t safe out here.” 

“Don’t ask stupid questions, Clint, I’m trying to tell you something important. You need an electromagnet, it jams the Tesseract’s signal to the guns effectively knocking them out of action, because of the connection between the Tesseract and the guns, it’ll knock them all out in one go. And besides, I’m armed and I know how to shoot.” Just as she said that her arms started to burn, like they had done a year ago when she had fallen through the void. “Please tell me you got the scope on Doom.” She whispered as she tried to slowly protect herself and find some sort of shelter. 

“Why?” Natasha asks, Amy’s insides feel like they’re on fire by now and she’s struggling to take steps, sweat is all over her body and she’s struggling to breathe. “Amelia, why?” Natasha asked again, a slight amount of worry setting into her voice. She fell to her knee’s and then to her side, the gun clattering to the ground beside her. She was burning up under the bright sunshine. 

“I THINK HE’S TRYING TO SEND ME BACK!” She wailed as she tried to curl in on herself as much as she could, but it made her hotter. Steve can hear her crying on the line, he’s torn between going to her side and going to find Doom. Her screams for help and quiet sobs push him back into action. No one wanted to see her go back to that world, and hearing the amount of pain she was in just by going back through it... No one wanted that either. He made a snap decision.

“I’m going after Doom.” 

No one stopped him.

He found Doom in his lab. No, scratch that, he found two Doom’s in the lab, conversing actively about the experiments they had been running through a damn portal to the other world. This was getting way too X-Files for him. The Doom facing him, in the portal kind of nodded and pointed towards Captain America, the Doom of this world turned and faced him. That sly smile catching on his face as he caught sight of the man. He walked down to meet Cap as in the other world someone made their way into Doom’s lair. 

Electricity crackled as Doom fired bolts of electricity at Cap, in these moments he wasn’t Steve – he was Captain America and the whole world knew it. He bounced them away with his shield and listened to them fizzle somewhere above his head. He isn’t going to give Doom the time to kill him. So when he sees a chance to start a proper fight, he gets in there a fist to the face, a kick to the abdomen here and there; avoiding the sight of someone oh so familiar fighting on the mirror side. 

“Bucky!” He can’t help it, it’s as breathless the ‘Steve’ that came from the other world. But they’ve acknowledged each other and they’re so damn happy to see each other. But the moment is short lived as all of a sudden Doom’s back and he’s pissed off. 

At one point, Doom had Cap in a choke hold, lifting him up off the ground. He looks across to see Bucky in the same choke hold. In each world, the cavalry arrives; for 

Cap it’s the Avengers, minus Banner, for Bucky it’s the Howling Commando’s. Tony knocks Doom down and Cap goes flying with it. He’s struggling to breathe properly as he scrambles back. They don’t give Doom another chance to get up.   
There’s an echoing gunshot from the other world. The sound of someone making a bad decision made with good intentions. Steve ran back to the mirror and looked through it, Bucky walked back up to the mirror, holding a hand gun. He let it clatter to the metal grating of the floor. His shoulders rising and falling as he caught his breath. He pulled something from his pocket, a folded piece of card, he turned it to Steve in the mirror. It was a black and white photograph that had been taken long ago, back when Steve was still skinny, they were smiling. “I did it for the punk kid from Brooklyn and his girlfriend that never got to be that,” Bucky took a shuddering breath as he looked at Steve properly. Without blinking he said, “I did it for you and her.” Bucky then turned and walked away, leaving Steve stood in shocked silence. 

“CAP! YOU GOTTA GET THAT THING SHUT DOWN. IT’S BURNING AMY UP LIKE THE SUN.” Banner was screaming at him through the comms, he takes one last look at the mirror before deciding that all it’s done is screw things up for him and his own. He pulls it off the wall and lets it smash against the railing, the sound of glass tinkling around but it didn’t stop the machinery humming. Doom was laughing manically, as Steve started tearing machinery off the walls and throwing it around. Clint and Natasha got out of there, leaving Tony and Thor who helped him to break as much stuff as they could, it can’t work if it’s broken. “It’s stopped. She’s still here... barely.” 

“Barely?” Steve asked quietly, breathing raggedly. 

“She’s in this world, but, I don’t think she’ll last the night.” Tony looked up at Steve, knowing that he hadn’t expected to hear those words again in his lifetime. Steve stared right back at him, his lips pressed in a hard line as he was angry and mournful all at once. He didn’t know how to function for a few seconds. He was overwhelmed. “You’d better get down here, say goodbye just in case.” There was still some hope in the world, she was still here and he was going to make the most of that moment. 

He ran out of there like a bat out of hell. Ignoring the echoing of Doom’s cackling. 

He’s not going to win today. Steve won’t let him win today.

Steve makes it down there, there’s several medical professional’s there doing their best. There are several different shouts of different medical terms, but most of it goes over his head. He’s focused on the fact that she’s there, breathing just as raggedly as he was. He throws down his shield, the clang is heard all around, he can barley breathe as he kneels down next to Banner, who wasn’t a medical doctor any more but he was still doing his best for her. He pulls off the mask and lets it drop to his side without a second thought. He just does the only thing he could think of at that moment in time, he picks up her hand and holds it tightly. “If you... Can you hear me?” His voice breaks as he speaks, she doesn’t answer, but her lips move, no sound came out and it’s like that night where he forgave her all over again, “Amy... I’m sorry. Please, I’m sorry. I...” She stares at him, all doe eyed and broken. “I can’t lose you all over again.” She blinks slowly and grips his hand. A silent gesture that she isn’t going anywhere any time soon. “Hold on, alright? Just hold on. For me.” She slips into a burning unconsciousness. 

The doctors rush her inside and Steve follows after them for as long as they’ll let him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's pretty much all I have written. I'm in the process of finishing it. I swear


End file.
